Part One: Initialization

I.Background

When I started college, my initial field of training was in Native North American archaeology and anthropology, taught in the Hampshire College style, which consisted of reading what other archaeologists and anthropologists had written and focusing on the study of how they did their research, what lenses they were viewing things from. We also examined what preconcieved ideas we had as primarily middle class American students and how these things influence our studies of other cultures. We were taught to always question our sources and our preconceptions and to try our best to keep an open-mind and to try to imagine what the people and cultures we were studying would think or would have thought about what we were doing.

After two years of this, I decided I wanted to focus on the spiritual and religious aspect of my own culture, and began studying early Christianity and how it's movement and growth was affected by the native pagan cultures it encountered. Most of these classes were taught at Smith College, a much more conservative school, less interested in deconstruction of study than getting a degree and getting out. But I was still a Hampshire student, so I continued to probe and question and became more interested in these pagan elements of Christianity, and took a class in Greek and Roman paganism, in which we read many of the widely available primary sources from the pre-Christian era as well as those that moved into the very beginnings of Christianity.

Having gained sufficient insight and primary sources and research information to at least temporarily satisfy my search on this subject, I again became interested in the subject of Celtic Christianity and the Celtic paganism that seemed to have a great influence on the Irish Catholic Church, as well as my own culture and childhood.

I was raised in a family that still calls itself Irish, and indeed I was probably the only child in my school who knew what a shelaleigh was at the age of ten. My family on my mother's side in particular is very active in the Catholic Church and very devout, and I was taken to church every sunday of my life until the age of 17 when I realized that the Catholic world view had nothing to do with my own. However, since I grew up in an atmosphere where spirituality was a prime topic of conversation, I didn't remain an atheist for long, looking for some sort of spiritual school or tradition. This co-incided with my arrival at Hampshire, and I investigated the Native American religions, but not being in any way genetically linked to these cultures, I felt they weren't for me, althought I had a great deal of respect for the Native American religions, and still do.

I realized that the Celtic world kept drawing me towards it both academically and spiritually, and with the arrival of "mod faeries"--my flat on campus seemed to be infested with little spots of color in the corner of people's eyes and things going missing on a regular basis and re-appearing in strange locations, events witnessed by everyone who visited the place--I realized that this was definitely a path I wanted to investigate in all levels.

Because I had been raised as a Christian, and because that is the religion that my culture was founded on, steeped in and a bastion of, I felt it necessary to examine closely, in an academic forum, the actual construction of the Christian religion and it's foundations in various pagan traditions. I became aware almost immediately that much of that paganism is still very much a part of the "traditional" Christianity, in ritual, theology and mythology.

Simultaneously, in a more personal field, I was searching for a way to express a spirituality that was more in the tradition of my ancestral heritage, the Celtic religions, as my origins are Irish, Welsh, Scots and English. I had had enough of religion, and was looking for a spirituality without all the trappings of an organized religion that required elaborate rituals, ceremonies and prayers. At this point, I became aware of a thing called Wicca, and set about finding out what it really was.

Well, I still don't really understand what they think they're doing, but I came across many people in person and on-line who called themselves Wiccan, and who said they were followers of the religion of the ancient Celts. Interested, I started reading things, talking to people and was completely and utterly disgusted. Wicca, a term which was invented as a variation on the world "witch," is very much an organized religion, but with more ritual, and a bit more spirituality and room for creativity than most religions.

While the idea of magic, and what one might call "supernatural" powers were also a part of my spiritual worldview, and had been since childhood, the way these were implemented in Wicca and most of the neo-pagan, new-age religions, is completely alien to me, and indeed strikes me as being very false for a variety of reasons. In studying some of the early Christianity and the late Greek and Roman paganism, as well as having some academic background in Druidism and Celtic Christianity, I decided I wanted and even needed to find out what this pre-Christian Celtic paganism was all about, and came to Ireland to study at the University College Cork, taking classes in Celtic Civilization and Folklore. I have since gained a much wider and deeper view on Celtic paganism and it has enriched my spiritual life as well as providing me with a great quantity of academic research materiel.

II. Methodology

For my study, I primarily used Fairy Legends From Donegal and Tanya Luhrmann's Persuasions of the Witch's Craft as my sources, but also used information gathered from a questionnaire posted on an internet newsgroup, as well as personal interviews with two Gardnerian Wiccans I had been living with. Ms. Luhrmann, over a period of a year and a half (from 1984-1985) lived in London and joinded several different Covens, witch's groups and Western Mysteries groups. She studied the practices of witchcraft, or Wicca, and paganism, how it worked, what people's intentions & ideas were, what she and they thought about Magic and why they did it and what it meant to them. She included much of her source materiel as well as analysis and commentary, and from that I was able to conduct my own analysis of her research, using her information to come to different conclusisons, coming from a different mode of inquiriy. Much of my information on Wicca and the Western Mysteries groups comes from her book Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England, as well as from my own research.

As part of my own research I posted a questionaire consisting of six rather complex questions to the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup alt.pagan, of which I have been a regular reader and poster for the past year. The questions were:

1. For those of you who do it, why do you participate in Ritual/ "do magic?" is it more about your inner spirituality and self- comprehension or about relating to/ affecting the world around you?

2. Do you consider your paganism (whichever flavor it comes in) to be a philosophy/ way of life or is it for achieving things, as a means to an end? (like spells and that sort of thing--and which would you call a spell/ritual for personal healing or the like?)

3. Where do you get your rituals? Are they written by you, your HP/HPS, taken from books? Do you try to make them historically accurate for the Big Festivals?

4. Speaking of the Big Festivals (I mean the solstices, equinoxes and the other 4 Celtic festivals that seem to be popular: Beltaine, Samhain, Lughnasa & Imbolc), what do you do for those and why? (just a brief overview unless of course you want to go into the specifics) Do you celebrate any other Big Festivals? (like maybe Norse, Greek, Roman, etc.)

5. Do you prefer to work alone or in groups? Why?

6. Do you find that rituals work? Do you "get what you asked for?" Are the ones where you don't really ask for anything specific successful? How do you know?

I recieved several responses to these questions, however, I had some difficulty with my newsreader, which crashed and has now lost this posting along with any responses I may have gotten while the system was down. I saved the responses I did get, which are at the end of this paper. The responses were in general lukewarm, and not very elaborate, which is not too surprising since I had not been a regular poster for a few months, and because I mentioned that it was for a paper, which people generally try to steer clear of. I also used other postings from the group, not related to my questionnaire, as well as Web sites.

After living for three weeks at Castle Pook, the homestead of two former Gardnerian Wiccans, who are still practicing pagans, I interviewed them with the same basic questions I had posted to alt.pagan. I already knew just from living with them what their basic philosophies were, but to make it formal I interviewed Bev, and his wife Del chose to fill in the questionnaire on her own, though interjecting comments throughout my interview with Bev.

I had been warned several times about what ethnographers and anthropologists call "going native." However, I have difficulty understanding why this has recieved the stigma of being the worst thing that could possibly happen while doing field research. As it turns out, I didn't have much to worry about, since there wasn't really anything for me to "go native" about at Castle Pook. There were no real rituals or anything that went on in any sort of group sense, and my own personal philosophy/spirituality was already very similar to the people I was living with there. I was not in any danger of being "converted" to paganism, since I already considered myself a pagan to begin with. I don't understand or agree with the concept that seems to abound in anthropological circles, which is that in order to do good research one must not believe or be a part of what is being studied, a concept I thought was outgrown in the 1960's. The way of thinking seems to be that if one believes what one is studying (paganism or fairy legends or what have you) that they are automatically biased and incapable of producing accurate or objective research. However, this does not take into consideration the fact that everyone comes from some point of view and in one way or another that will be reflected in their research. Take for example the archaeologists studying Native Americans, their artifacts and cultures in the early 20th century. They had no idea what they were looking at, what many of the artifacts were used for, or what meaning they had for the people they were studying. Many errors in analysis were wrong because these "objective" archaeologists and anthropologists didn't take the time to listen to the Native American peoples who were trying to tell them that no, this kiva wasn't used for goat sacrifices, it was for tribal council meetings. Nor did they bother to actually live with the people and try to understand what the spirit of the people was like.

If anything I have a problem with not "going native" while trying to understand another culture, another way of living, because as long as one is an outsider one can never understand the true dynamics of a group, and what their inner workings are really about and how they are viewed, and would be more likely than not treated with at least some small bit of patronization. I can understand not wanting one's studies to turn into blind fanaticism that inhibits the thought process, as I have seen happen in certain Christian studies, where the person doesn't want to analyse something because it might be blasphemous or evil to even think about certain subjects. As long as analysis is still going on, I don't see the problem with "going native" as such.

Another primary source I used was Seán O' hEochaidh's collection of Fairy Legends From Donegal, a group of stories, superstitions and anecdotes about the fairy folk of southwestern Donegal and the Tory Island area. I took mostly from this the prescriptive advice given to prevent damage or harm from the fairies as well as the tales of what to do or not to do if being helped or hindered by them already. It is my theory that these "superstitions" are what could possibly be left over scraps of ritual and theology from the days when the gods walked the land and had to be appeased by the mortals, as well as being advice on how to deal with fairies, which I do believe are always around and about.

I sincerely regret my inability to locate a single one of the witch's manuals mentioned in Luhrmann's book as being some of the more popular instruction books on how to be a Wiccan, especially Gardner's Witchcraft Today, Marion Green's Magic in Principle and Practice, and Starhawk's Spiral Dance. However, witchcraft doesn't seem to be as widely accpeted in Ireland as in England or the United States. Fortunately, Luhrmann included sufficient quotes and references from Starhawk (which I had read some of previously) that I could reconstruct much of what the Wiccans seem to be basing their religion on, as well as from person experience and conversation with various people, both in person and over the internet.

Finally, I take much of my information on what was the religion and mythology of the pre-Christian Celts, specifically in Ireland, from lectures by UCC professor Padraig O' Riain, who in his lecture notes cited Anne Ross' Everyday Life of the Pagan Celts and Pagan Celtic Britain as well as P. Mac Cana's Celtic Mythology. I also used notes from lectures by professors James Carey and Gearoid O'Crualaoich.

Part Two: Deconstruction

I. Neo-paganism: Ritual playacting

First I think it important to define, as near as possible, what I am referring to as the "Neo-pagan movement." While it would seem obvious to anyone involved in modern paganism, outsiders might have images of scenes from the movie Dragnet with Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks dressed up as goats sacrificing a virgin in an L.A. swimming pool. Although there are as many forms of Paganism as there are people practicing it, there are some vague generalities that can be used to clear up some of the basic concepts. Most pagans follow some form of nature-based polytheistic spiritual path, although there is a large percentage of atheist pagans. Some of the things that most pagans have in common is a wish for peace and to be able to devise their own method of worshiping, acknowledging or honoring their own personal concept of a deity, deities or spirits. The only strict policy is that of tolerance of anyone and everyone else's perceptions of God, the gods, the Goddess or goddesses, although there seems to be a general dislike of Christians, and intolerance towards prostheletizers of any religion. The Celtic festivals seem to be the most popular to celebrate, although the deities of just about all the religions seem to be popular, Greek, Roman, Jewish, Egyptian and Celtic alike.

Wicca, a particular sect of the Pagan movement, was invented in the 1950's by English civil servant Gerald Gardner and his good friend Doreen Valiente. They invented rituals, prayers, songs, poems, artwork and even created the ritual tools and symbols to go along with them, then passed them off as being part of a continuing line of Celtic pagan religion, disregarding the fact that some Golden Dawn Judeo-Christian qabbalism, and other Christian elements had been tossed in to make it nicer, more mainstream and digestable for their middle class Christian followers.

Of course, there are many views as to who is qualified to be a Wiccan and who isn't. There has been much debate in the pagan community, specifically on the internet, as to who is qualified to be Wiccan and who isn't. Some think you merely have to agree with the Wiccan philosophies and follow the Rede, which says "As it harms none, do what thou wilt" and the Threefold Law, which says that "Everything you do comes back to you threefold." Others think you need to perform all the rituals, observe all the Sabbats (the eight main Celtic holidays) and esbats (full moons).

Posts dealing with this particular issue found in the thread (usenet subject heading) entitled "Is anyone seriously studying the Craft" leads one to believe that Wicca has indeed become a religion, with it's fundamentalists and it's reactionaries, leaders, heroes & dissenters. Basically one person can not believe in any deities or practice any of the rituals, but believe in the philosophies of Wicca, while another can do every single ritual exactly the way Gardner and Valiente described, and both would be within their rights as Wiccan to say the other is not a proper Wiccan, but that they themsevles are.

Since the 1960’s there has been a noticeable increase in the Neo-Pagan movement in England, the United States, and more recently, Ireland. This consists of a distinct upswing in the numbers of people returning to the "Old Ways," the pre-Christian religions of the Celts, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Germanic tribes and even the Jewish mystical tradition of Qabbalism. Two of the most popular forms of this neo-paganism are Gardnerian Wicca and the "Western Mysteries" or the Qabbalistic tradition practiced and advocated by Aleister Crowley, both of which seem to incorporate elements of each other’s traditions. This blending of traditions is an indication of the erronious nature of the practices of a large number of these neo-pagans. The Neo-Pagan movement is primarily founded on a collection of fantasy novels, the imagination of the authors of ritual magicians' manuals and Christian hierarchy and social structure, with a sprinkling of actual historical and archaeological evidence to give it an air of authenticity.

Throughout my study of Wicca and the new-age neo-pagan movement, both formal and informal, I have noticed three basic areas of their philosophy which these religions fail to live up to: 1. the practice of a pre-Christian, Celtic religion; 2. the manipulations of ritual instead of real power and talent in their practice of Magic and 3. the successful incorporation of their religion and spiritual beliefs into their everyday lives.

Although almost all pagan groups claim to be participating in ancient pre-Christian religions, in fact there is almost no attempt to adhere at all to Celtic or even pre-Christian symbolism or mythology. The rituals they are using to honor the Celtic festival days, or Sabbats, as they are called in Wicca, are borrowed randomly from all sorts of traditions, pagan and Christian. In fact, "...a magician may adapt one of the myths of Isis, conflate it with a tale of Cerridwen, talk of the universal aspect of the black mother in Erishkigal, Hectate, Kali and enact a "traditional" ritual using the names & symbols of all five" (Luhrmann, p. 241)

As Luhrmann noted, "They poach from the past in the interests of the present and plunder the world's mythology for their symbolic goods" (Luhrmann, p. 244).

Most Wiccans first became aquainted with Wicca through books that prescribe rituals invented by the author, and passed off as "ancient" rituals & traditions. Some manuals, like Gardner's & Starhawk's admit that their "ancient traditions" have been invented for artistic purposes, but that is generally overlooked; either they don't notice that part, don't understand and many just don’t care & say it doesn’t matter whether or not it’s historically accurate. "The most blatant invention of tradition can be found in the guides to magical practice."(Luhrmann p.241)

Although there are many variations, there seem to be some common elements in all Wiccan rituals, with universally used symbols and ritual objects. One responder to my questionnaire described his coven's usual activities as "standard public liturgy" which "involves casting a circle with the four elements, calling the quarters and invoking the Goddess and the Horned God, a working which can be a guided meditation, a magical action, a teaching session, etc., cakes and wine hallowed and shared...grounding and taking down and opening the circle." I have seen these parts of the ceremonies described in many of the magicians manuals like Starhawk and others that seem to be the most popular Wiccan instruction books. However, it is not clear where these rituals originated.

The practitioners themselves generally do very little or no research themselves on mythology and religion of the ancient peoples they are supposed to be emulating, they merely follow the manuals that say to do a ritual in a certain way with no thought to why it's being done, or where the author got his or her information. There are plenty of sources available to the average library card owner that give much more accurate information on pre-Christian paganism, Celtic and otherwise, for example, much of the early medieval Irish literature, Julius Caesar's Bello Gallico, as well as volumes of Greek and Roman writings on the Mithraic, Eleusian and other pre-Christian cults.

However these sources are not used or are merely overlooked, as are much of the folk and fairy tales and early Christian practices I will mention later. In a list of sources magicians (Wiccans) use to create ritual & found their paganism on, nearly all are secondary sources, like the manuals by Starhawk, Green and others, and fantasy/fiction novels; especially popular isThe Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It is briefly mentioned at the end of an extensive several-page list of such sources that the practicers of magic were only "likely to have standard anthologies of Greek, Egyptian and Celtic books" (Luhrmann p. 266). One Wiccan poster to alt.pagan said his interpretation of Wicca didn't involve a thinking process, "a head trip. My Wiccan teaching is mostly from the neck down--a body religion." Another of Luhrmann's informants says "The very point of the witchcraft was not to analyse" (Luhrmann, 288).

It seems that although much of Wicca is founded on Celtic symbolism and mythology, the evidence for real Celtic paganism isn't at all reflected in it. People tend to think that because there isn't the same vast library of literature and archaeological evidence there is "no evidence" of pre-Christian Celtic paganism. Because the Celts had an oral culture that did not believe in writing down sacred teachings it is thought that Celtic religion and mythology can be freely invented & sold off as the real thing, as Gerald Gardner did when he "wrote a fictional ethnography which claimed to have discovered a modern sescent of these secretive covens" (Luhrmann, p. 242). "...the traditional aspect of many rites is more a commitment to the ritual's time honored nature than an indication of actual authenticity" (Luhrmann, p. 72-73). This seems to be a generally acknowledged and accepted system of doing things, by essentialy saying that "it's the thought that counts."

Another important element of Wicca that seems to be contradictory to it's nature is that of the generous borrowing from Christianity. Not only do the mainstream wiccans take from other pagan traditions arbitrarily, but the same people who are almost fundamentalist in their dislike of Christianity are borrowing rituals, instruments and structure from the Judeo-Christian religions and incorporating them into some of the primary aspects of their Wiccan religion.

For example, the very structure of the coven, with it's High Priest and Priestess who conduct the rituals and hold positions of leadership in the group is very similar to the concept of the Christian priests and ministers who serve almost the same function in the Church. While it is said that all Wiccans are priests of their gods, there is still the hierarchical structure of the group meeting that demands a certain time frame of schooling and education in one's religion before one can be "qualified" to be called a High Priest/ess. When one attains the "third degree" in Wicca, he or she is qualified to serve as a High Priest or Priestess to his or her own coven. He or she can then splinter off and form a separate group or remain in the original group. Who decides when the "third degree" is reached is unclear, and often depends on the particular coven you belong to, which correspondence course you are taking, or when you yourself decide you are ready to become a High Priest/ess.

The concept of initiation into a religious cult goes back to the Greek notion of muesis, which was a formalized introduction to the Eleusian and Mithraic cults among others. Also, the hierarchical structure of the Wiccan religion is very easily traced to the Judeo-Christian mystical tradition. The first recorded example is from medieval times with the Knights Templar, which then became associated with the Rosicrucians, as well as the Masonic organization within the Catholic Church. It is well known that Gardner was a friend and student of Aleister Crowley, who himself held a very high degree in the Masonic tradition before he formed his own Qabbalistic Order of the Golden Dawn, which, like Wicca, held only three degrees. Qabbalissm itself is an ancient form Jewish mysticism that also uses a great deal of Egyptian mythology and symbolism as well as Christian. Wiccans and Western Mysteries groups (what followers of the form of qabbalism practiced by Crowley, Dion Fortune and others is generally called) are not the only groups to use a three-tiered degree system, but also the Order of Ovates Druids and Bards, another pseudo-Celtic new age pagan group.

Many specific elements of coven rituals themselves are modeled on the Christian/Catholic church service. For example, of the four ritual tools, the cup or chalice, the plate, the wand and the sword, called in Wicca an athame, as well as the usage of candle and incense, all but the wand and sword are taken directly from the Christian church service, as is the usage of an altar, for there is no evidence of how the Celts used their altars in ritual. I can only assume that Gardner took the usage of the sword and wand from his qabbalistic background, because there is no archaeological or literary evidence of those ever being used in Celtic religions, nor the Catholic tradition.

On the other hand, I have come across many pagans, Wiccan and others, who acknowledge that they are making up much of their ritual and philosophy as they go along, many of whom freely admit that they are making it up as they go along. My primary experience with this was at Castle Pook, where both Bev and Del took their rituals from "Imagination. Entirely. I’m in the process of unlearing all the bunkum from books...I’m a recovering Wiccan." They also took their lack of usage of books and manuals very seriously and even went so far as to say "I never do other people’s rituals, under any circumstances". However, if people want to invent their ritual and spirituality, that's perfectly valid, but it is very dishonest to go about calling it an ancient or pre-Christian or traditional anything. Rather they should call it what it is and say that it's a new tradition they've invented, rather than passing it off as traditional Celtic. A path that is polytheistic, celebrates the seasons, and the solar and lunar phases, that allows for a belief in fairies and elves, and consists of regular meetings where everyone dances naked in a circle around a fire chanting Goddess songs does not have to be ancient and pre-Christian to be a valid expression of one's spirituality.

What many of the ritual magicians, Wiccans and other varieties alike, seem to be into, are what I call power trips and ritual roleplaying. These two ideas are tied together in that they are used by ritual magicians to create the illusion of being a part of the magical world and doing works of high Magic, when what they are really doing is playacting using powerful imagery and symbolism. People who are no longer a part of the group scene, and who are primarily interested in their own spirituality don't generally have this misconception, like my informant Bev from Castle Pook: "I don’t consider that magic & ritual are in any way the same thing. Magic is a natural thing within it’s own laws, as it were. Ritual is a means for people to understand magic, trying to make it conform to a set of rules that they’ve contrived. Or as a means of creating in themselves a frame of mind to be receptive to magic."

It is a selling point of modern paganism, especially acadmeic Wicca, that no apparent talent, skill, perceptive ability, or the Sight, as it's often called, or inherent power are necessary in order to be a good witch. One must only read the books, follow the mail order course, pay the money, know the right phrases, and know the right people. The idea is that anyone can be a magician, or a witch, because it is a religion, and the ritual involved in the religion is intended to worship the gods, not actually conjur real power or tap into real magic, but is considered a very good thing if it happens incidentally to the ritual. Ritual magic is often, on certain levels, not about actually being in tune with nature, the universe, the gods, or one's inner power, rather the primary focus is on the use of imagery. "Magic is said to work throught the imagination and the more intensely you can imagine something the more likely, it is said, that the magic will work" (Luhrmann, p. 242). It's the imagining that's important the imagery that "creates" magic, not the actual validity of the gods or the understanding and union with the universe it claims to be.

However, once one gets beyond the initiatory level of doing the ritual for the sake of imagery, and it is recognized that there are greater or higher elements being affected, one is actually "doing magic," either correctly or incorrectly. At this point the intent is to affect the world around the magician, but even when trying to create visible effects, they do not seek understanding of their selves & the universe but rather manipulation and control of it. "Magic is about controlling the uncontrollable world" (p. 260) Still, however, doing magic consists of elaborate rituals that involve using the "right" incense, candles, colors, objects and imagery, either as prescribed in a manual or from the magicians imagination. It is still the ritual of the action that is supposed to be doing all the work; "Magical rituals are meant to concentrate forces and direct power" not the person performing the ritual (Luhrmann, p. 181). It is still understood that the individual doing the performance isn't responsible for the magic, but it is the imagery and ritual used correctly that is the source of power.

The point of these rituals often seems to be requesting assistance from the Goddess, either in the form of financial asistance, spiritual strength and assistance, and especially healing, both physical and spritual, of selves friends and relatives. This is done because one of the basic principles of all neo-pagan magical practices is that "Modern magic rests upon the idea that thought can affect matter" (Luhrmannn,117). If a ritual is being performed for a specific purpose, like a request for money, either by an individual or group, there would be symbols of money used in all elements of the ritual. For example with the specific request for money, silver would be used where possible, or green, in the form of candles, actual bits of silver metal in some sort of offering, in the garb of the magicians, the table cloth, wherever possible. Symbols of gain and fortune, often taken from Aleister Crowley's Liber 777 or Book of Thoth, would also be used in key parts of the ritual.

At Castle Pook the position of ritual is not really what it usually is among neo-pagans. As Del said, "Magic works without the need for rituals. You know because you can see the results." Bev, the former Wiccan described how in the late 1960's he and some of the other Wiccan friends from Gardner's coven cursed America. At Stonehenge's Midsummer Festival, which used to be a big gathering of pagans and hippies "before Thatcher’s New britain made the changes in the Law, that made it rather difficult" one year, a group decided that America no longer deserved the symbol of the great Bald Eagle. They cursed the country that the Eagle may no longer be it's symbol, and within a decade the Bald Eagle was nearly extinct, and was only barely saved from obliteration by the National Wildlife Federation. This was seen as a direct result of the Midsummer cursing.

Of course there are, unsurprisingly, failures at attempted magical ritual. Either nothing happens & the request made at the time of ritual is not granted, or the members feel that there was no power or energy, or things clearly go wrong spiritually. Luhrmann sites 3 primary reasons magicians ascribe to failure of rituals:

1. "failure to live up to standards of performance"

2. "magicican's weakness of will"

3. "technique itself may be defined as misconcieved" (p. 139)

Luhrmann describes a ritual where the High Priest and Priestess, a husband and wife team, were seated in circle in a pattern that directed the energy they were trying to summon through the wife. Halfway through she started saying things that were not part of the scripted ritual, crying hysterically and even walked out of the circle talking to herself and crying. Eventually she snapped out of it, but the ritual was stopped, and it was later understood that because of where she was seated, she became the focus for energies that had no means of escape, and she was, in fact, temporarily posessed (Luhrmann, 210).

There is another example from Persuasions that perfectly illustrates that often the people performing the ritual are doing just that, performing, with no thought to the fact that there may be real power involved that can backfire or be misused. This is from a conversation between a Western Mysteries group leader, Enoch, and another member, Nigel.

Nigel: I was thinking that if you did something without really fully understanding what you were doing you might create some-- patterns."

Enoch: You might...get into trouble...Do you really think so?" (p.164)

The fact that an experienced member of a highly intellectual group is just beginning to grasp this idea is disturbing, and that the leader doesn't seem to agree is epecially unsettling. I would think that it should be one of the first lessons learned, that if you're going to go messing about with supernatural forces that are thousands of years old, you'd better know what you're doing.

This is a large part of what leads me to believe that what is being practiced is less magic than a sort of religious roleplaying, which is even further supported by Luhrmann's observations that Wiccans "have often read fantasy and science fiction before they enter..." and several fantasy novels and authors are listed as sources of magical ritual, like Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mercedes Lackey, and others. (Luhrmann, 238). I have also personally encountered many pagans, specifically Wiccans who have been highly active in SCA, Dungeons and Dragons and other fantasy roleplaying groups. Does this mean that they are therefore more accepting and open to the ideas and practices of magic & paganism, or does it mean they have merely found another way to engage in their fantasy dreamworlds? There are many reasons to suspect that often "magick" is more like live action roleplaying than a religion or spiritual belief.

The adoption of a "spiritual name," a "coven name" or a "magickal name" seems to be another common practice in many neo-pagan religions. These names are often secret, a tradition apparently taken from the the Golden Dawn/western mysteries tradition. Their usage of secret names, or using initials of a secret name, as did the Western Mysteries group that Luhrmann joined (Luhrmann, 230). This particular concept very obviously comes from Judaism, which uses only an acronym for the name of their God, Y.H.V.H., which is used because the true name of God cannot be spoken or known. Again, this is by no means a pagan tradition, it is Judeo-Christian, assuming the definition of pagan involves being Not Christian or pre-Christian.

"They change their names, their costumes and their bearing as if the adoption of a new identity will produce new abilities, a nominalist fallacy with a potent psychological force" (Luhrmann,166). It seems that often magic is more about theatrics & having it look good, or runing around naked --"skyclad"-- and having"shag sessions" as Bev called them, than actually practicing Magic.

A name is chosen which is atttched to this magician character that the housewife or businessman can play, giving it even more of an element of play acting at being real workers of Magic. As Marion Green, the author of a popular witch's manual and founder of a large coven in London, admits, they are "playing the part of someone who is in touch with vast powers" (quoted in Luhrmann,129; Green, 33). This is vastly different than actually being in touch with vast powers, and essentially the difference between real Magic and playing at magick.

One of the explanations for why ritual robes are worn and names are adopted is that it creates sacred space, away from the mundane. This seems counter-intuitive to the idea of having magic be a part of the everyday, part of life, part of the normal routine, which is what most pagans will tell you their paganism is meant to be. The contradiction seems to lie in the fact that although pagans claim magic and their paganism is a way of life for them, not just something to do, or a place to be on the full moon, they still go out of their way to take magic and ritual out of the everyday world they live in, by putting on the magical robes, by casting circles and having rituals only in specially designated rooms that they call temples.

Keeping magic apart from everyday life seems to be standard practice, but when directly questioned as to whether or not magic is part of their everyday life they invariably say things like "Paganism is very much a way of life..." They set up particular times and meetings for doing ritual, whether it's every week on a particular night, or on full moons (often called "esbats" by Wiccans) or even just the Sabbats. This further separates magic from their everyday lives, giving it a time and space unto itself that is removed from the ordinary. At these times they gather in order to "do some magic" not unlike the Christian going to church on Sundays, Christmas and Easter. Which isn't to say that neither the Wiccan nor the Christian believe in their gods and their religions, but it becomes separate from the everyday realm, and runs the risk of becoming something to do, for whatever reason...or for no reason at all, just because it's time to go be magical now. This is intrinsically related to the subject of what makes one an Wiccan and what doesn't. One poster to alt.pagan said "I think in order to be Wicccan you have to celebrate the Sabbats. Other rituals are optional. After all, if you don't properly observe the main holy days of any religion, why should you belong to that religion?"

Sacred space is an element common to almost every religion in the world. Everyone recognizes that some places in nature, like mountain tops, forests or rivers, and human-built places like churches, temples or circles of standing stones are more important, special or holy than others. This does not by definition make the things that go on in these places less mundane or part of one's every day life simply because they happen in these sacred spaces as well. One woman who belonged to one of the covens Tanya Luhrmann joined was insisting that she did not feel comfortable performing her rituals in her living room because it was a room where mundane activities were performed, such as vacuuming and watching TV (Luhrmann, 147). The Hornsey group, one of the Western Mysteries groups Luhrmann joined, finds the idea of sacred space very important and has a room styled as a temple, with elaborate specifications as to size, shape, directional orientation, etc., where all their ritual meetings and activities are held. Another Golden Dawn group, the Greystone group even went so far as to collaborate on the purchase of a house specially reserved for Magical workings and ritual.

These all seem to be intentionally separating the "magical" world from the "real" world, making them into two separate entities, which defeats the purpose of paganism and implies that the practitioners don't really see magic as part of their everyday lives as they claim.

II. Old Celtic Paganism: Folklore & Fairy Legends

True Quarters and Crooked Quarters (the Wiccan Sabbats):

We know very little of what the Celts did at their seasonal celebrations from what was recorded in medieval times and by what still goes on today, thought it is often thinly disguised as Christian festivals and celebrations. The Celtic calendar had eight major festivals, the four primary seasonal/agricultural festivals, called the True Quarters, and the Crooked Quarters which acknowledged and celebrated the solar holidays.

The True Quarters, often called the Cross Quarters by modern Pagans, were Samhain, the Celtic New Year, Imbolc (Oímelc) or Candlemas, Beltaine, or May Day, and Lughnasa. Although these have been assigned permanent dates, they were traditionally celebrated when the time seemed right, rather than according to any fixed solar calendar dates, though lunar associations would not be an illogical assumption, since the dates given them in our modern calendar (like Feb. 1 for Imbolc) are usually within a few nights of a full or new moon.

Samhain:

Samhain Eve was the Celtic New year, and has been given the stationary calendrical date of October 31, and is still celebrated in much the same way it was thousands of years ago. In addition to being the end of the harvest season, it was believed that on the eve of the month of Samhain one could communicate with the ancestral other world as demonstrated in several Irish hero-tales, among them the story of "The Watch of Fineen" in which each Samhain Eve a woman of the otherworld would come and talk to him of times past.

Another tale that illustrates the supernatural element of this day is in "the Wasting Sickness of Cuchulainn a fair was held by the Ulstermen at Emain Macha that lasted three days before Samhain Eve and three days after. it was a time for the warriors to assemble and reflect on their truimphs. Cuchulainn held a sword at his side that would kill him if he told a lie.

Fire was an important element of this festival, and appears in several of the tales surrounding this night. One tells of how Tara was burned each year by Aileen who magically put to sleep all the people gathered for the festivities by singing to them. When they were all asleep, he then then burned the place down. This happened every year until Fionn managed to stay awake by pricking himself with a pin, and the destruction was stopped. Another story in which we see Fire is an important element is about the Feast of Tara for which all the druids would assemble on Samhain Eve and a great fire was kindled in which offerings were burnt. All the other fires in the land were put out and rekindled from the embers of the fire at Tara.

Although there has been much speculation on the matter, the deity associated with Samhain Eve is not the lord of the dead. Rather, he is found in the tale in which St. Patrick lights his own fire on Samhain, and the druids warn the king that if Patrick's fire is permitted to burn, the druids will be driven from the land. The only one of the king's men who approved was called Erc, who has been since made a saint, whose feast day is November 1. However, as with most Celtic saints, Erc's origins can easily be traced to a Celtic deity, Elcmar of the Tuatha de Danann who resided as king at New Grange.

For humans, this was a day to be protected from damage or harm done by the ancestors, not the Sí, though the Fairy Otherworld was also afoot this night. On this day, the dead return and are very close to or even walk among the humans. Food and drink was left out for them and a fire blazing in the hearth and the door open to them. This was not done in a macabre sense, nor did it fill one with terror, but was done with caution. The house was left to them, the people having left the house or at the very least the kitchen in order to avoid potential harm.

One of the Samhain tales from Fairy Legends From Donegal that showed it was definitely a night of fairy activity is one about the fairy woman who comes to a cottage and enchants a chest of oats. She does this by waveing a "rod that was hanging by a string from her waist" and speaks a charm in a fairy language and touches the chest, which from then on was never empty (FLFD p.339).

Some common customs that have lasted into present day are the game of snap apples or bobbing for apples, still a popular Halloween game, especially in America. In addition to apples, a bread called barn brek or bairín brek was eaten, brek meaning "spotted" and referring to the raisins or currants baked in it. Samhain eve was also for sitting around a fire with the men folk telling Fenian tales with friends and family. women not allowed to tell these tales for fear of harm, again reflecting the importance of fire.

Other fairy activities and tales related to Samhain Eve are that you should never never leave a wake alone at night on Samhain Eve or else you'll be led astray by the fairies, and there are two tales that mention fairy horsemen (FLFD, 109). In one Tory Island tale a group of fairy horsemen always rode 3 times around the strand, and it is in this way that a stolen woman is returned to her husband (FLFD, 51). In another there an elaborate story of how a fairy horseman takes man to America to get his money back from business partner that swindled him years before (FLFD, 362).

Imbolc:

Imbolc, which is generally celebrated on February first or second, was traditionally known as the "ewe-milking" season, or the lambing season, when the sheep were born. It is the traditonal beginning of spring as well, and there were celebrations of animal fertility, and of the flocks, cattle, herds. Milk was associated with this celebration and time of year as well. Originally ewe's milk was the milk of choice, but as cows replaced sheep as the primary flock cow's milk became the more popular choice. As we can see, these festivals did not remain static, but changed as the culture and people's lives changed.

A tradition that exists today, though it's origins are unkown, is the custom from S. Kerry, where men dress up as horses and go around the town collecting money door to door. They then go to the pub to drink away the money they had collected. Whether or not this is a south Kerry version of the celebration of animal fertility can only be guessed at.

We also know that the goddess Brigid was widely venerated in Celtic lands on this day, which we can still see in the many places dedicated to her, but most especially because the Christian version of the goddess, St. Brigit, in many of the same locations and with the same traditions as the goddess. We know she has some association with grain harvest as well as the animal fertility of the day because of the St. Brigit's crosses that are made from wheat and barley stalks from the previous year's harvest.

Beltaine, which is assigned the stationary calendar date of May 1, and often called May Day, is located on the protective axis of the calendrical division lines, oposite Samhain. This was again a time when human life needed protection, but this time only from the Sí, who are said to be particularly active on this day. Many of the customs associated with this day were to protect the household and human life from the otherworld

There were many May Eve rituals that have survived into the twentieth century in Donegal that were practiced to prevent harm from fairies. Among them were the tying of rowan onto the tails of the sheep, cows & other herd animals, melting "Mary candles" and rubbing the hot wax into the cow’s hair, and piercing sheep’s and lamb’s ears and putting red thread through the hole for protection from injury by the wee folk (Fairy Legends, p.85).

I didn't see any precations being taken to protect from the fairies, but I did see a goat being born on May Eve, a few hours into my stay at Castle Pook. This is apparently a common time for goats to be born. There is another Legend of an "old Protestant woman", who is said to have been seen dragging a piece of cloth through the dew one May Eve, calling out that all the milk in the village should come to her the next morning. A priest saw her and called 2/3 of the milk should come to him, and the next morning his barn was full of vessels of milk (Fairy Legends, p.85). The portrayal of an old woman perhaps comes from the image of the hag, the enchanted old woman, which is in turn often a metaphor for the goddess herself.

The other association with Beltaine is with the sun. The word "beltaine" itself means "bright fire," and often fires were lit in welcoming the sun, which is returning as the days get longer.

I myself witnessed a modern Beltaine ritual of sorts, held on the full moon just three days after May Day. I attended a Traveller's rave on top of a remote mountain in the Ballyvourney area, which included a huge fire, loud music, lights, dancing, drinking and various other forms of intoxication. The party lasted three days and was attended by about one hundred people or more, all of whom were Travellers from various parts of Ireland. The entire road for about a mile was clogged with caravans, wagons, vans and cars, reminiscent of the Puck's Fair that used to be part of the celebraton of Lughnasa in Co. Kerry.

Lughnasa:

King puck of Puck's Fair was another Traveller's celebration in S. Kerry. It was said to be a very pagan version of Lughnasa, which is celebrated in what is now the first of August. The fair was so well attended in the old days, you couldn't get into the town for all the travellers caravans & wagons.

In pre-Christian times, as well as in farming cultures well into modern times, this was a time to celebrate vegetable fertility, that of the corn, and vegetables. This was definitely a harvest celebration since people would often be near starving by about late July, when all the first early harvest vegetables would be gone, and the next ones not ready yet. This was the next big harvest time, the last one being just before winter started, at Samhain.

At this festival, there was much feasting and veneration of the god Lugh, the handsome young male god of the Celts. Because he is said to have given to the farmers the secret of when to plow & when to sow so he was especially revered by the farmers.

A 12th century poem describes the Lughnasa celebration at Emain Macha, which was a significant holy location because it was situated on raised ground. First, the poem says, business was discussed and all legal matteres were settled. That it was a time of happiness is clear b/c all negative aspects of business and rebvelry were outlawed, namely the levying of debts and quarreling and fighting.

Then there were all sorts of celebration, music and merry making. among the entertainment: tales of death were told, pedigrees were recited, dindenachas, the place name tales were told, and tales of armies battles, hostiles and tabus were told.

This was also a time for marriage often known as "Telltown marriages," named after the town of Tailtiu or Tailteann. These were renewable 12 month contracts, to "test out" marriage. However, no elopements were allowed. Interestingly enough, exactly nine months from this day is Beltaine, so perhaps there were a lot of human births as well as goat's.

In the countryside Lughnasa was a day often more associated with fruits & berries of the season: blueberries, billberries, hartes and gooseberries. These were collected in elevated places by young men and women, again showing the sacred or religious importance of high places Today however, all that remains of the Lughnasa celebration is the Rostailteann, a bicycling competition similar to the Tour de France that was originally part of the Tailteann Games, the irish equivalent of the Olypic games.

Like Imbolc, this day has been taken over by the feast day of a Christian saint, in this case, St. Patrick, whose veneration this day is most popularly a pilgrimage to Loch Derg, which is in itself a rather pagan sort of celebration, involving much dancing, music and merrymaking after a long night of prayer on bloody knees.

The Crooked Quarters, or the four primary solar events have floating dates as well, but are generally within a few days of the same day every year. These are Midwinter, or the Winter Solstice, Midsummer, or the Summer Solstice, the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox. Perhaps it is because these days have been so completely Christianized their ancestral pagan roots have been all but lost, though some shadow of the old celebrations exist.

Close to Midsummer is June 23, or St. John's Eve, known in parts of Ireland as "Bonfire Night," when the hilltops are all lit with bonfires, even in the city. The Autumnal Equinox has also been adopted by the Christian calendar and has been associated with the feast of St. Michael, and renamed Michaelmas. Both Easter and St. Patrick's Day are located near and associated with the Spring Equinox, which is still celebrated with a combination of prayer and revelry, with such traditions as egg hunts, parades and much feasting and sweets. The Winter solstice has been completely replaced by Christmas as the main winter holiday, but the traditions of gift giving and singing around a decorated tree are all possible vestiges of a pre-Christian holiday.

Based on the theory that the gods & goddesses of the Tuatha de Danann were forced under the hills into the water and the air and became the fairy host we can probably assume that many of the fairy legends and folk traditions relating to fairies are leftovers of ritual that existed when they were still gods. Fairies have taken on the role in the human realm that gods had beforehand held, doing both good and bad things. There are good and bad fairies, not unlike good and bad gods and there are sayings, spells and rituals to appease and invoke them. Most of the legends consist of how to avoid the wrath or meddling of fairies but many show how fairies have helped and occasionally hindered mortals lives in a variety of ways and although they are magical creatures, there are rules the fairies must obey.

The hill folk, wee people, airy host, sea gentry or whatever you may call them, played an integral role in peoples lives in areas of the world into the 20th century, affecting their fields, herds of cattle and sheep, their children and even their drink. There are many examples of this to be found in the collection of narratives called Fairy Legends From Donegal collected by Sean O'hEochaidh. In addition to the legends that deal with specific days like Samhain and Beltaine, there are the everyday precautions and remedies for warding off unwanted fairy interference as well as what to do to keep any fairy help you may recieve.

You should never take stones from fairy forts or build on top of them, nor build with white quartz or burn it (FLFD, 93, 99) . It was recommended that if you are evicted from your house, the night before you should burn some white quartz and give the new tenants no end of devilment from the fairies (FLFD, 99). If you somehow find yourself in Faerie, never eat or drink anything, or you’ll never get out(FLFD, 41).

Being led astray or stolen by the fairies was a common fear, and there were many charms against it. Some of the more popular ones were to put iron or salt in milk and butter, which could be done by putting a nail in milk pail, or a coin in anything milk went in, like bottles, jugs and buckets. This prevented the milk from being stolen by the fairy folk, and the bearer from being led astray while carrying it. Iron was also a deterrent to fairies trying to steal children. A common practice was to place tongs put over a cradle to prevent a child from being taken by the fairies (FLFD, 167).

Since the fairies couldn’t touch anything containing iron or salt, many foods were seasoned with salt, especially fish. If anything was being taken away from the house, it was essential that it be salted. Salt in milk is was also important especially if it is going to a neighbor or a Traveller to prevent the carrier from being led astray (FLFD, 167).

Other forms of precaution were to carry a live ember (most often in the form of a pipe or glowing stick) to prevent being led astray (FLFD , 325), and to turn your jacket inside out as general protection from danger (FLFD, 195).

There were also legends about certain plants that were considered Fairy plants, and they had certain ritualistic associations. It was said that one should never hit a cow with a branch of holly or it would have bloody urine (FLFD, 327). There were several magical associations with yellow ragweed; hitting a cow with it was said cause the fairies to take it’s milk, but in two stories, the fairies could turn it into magical horses & pigs (FLFD , 255 &137). The bog myrtle was considered "a very fairy little tree" (FLFD p. 327), and yew trees were also somewhat magical. As well as known for being good for making curach gears & ribs (FLFD,329), there is one story that suggests they are very sacred. A man tries to take the wood from a yew tree from Oileán an Lúir ("Island of the Yew Tree"), but the lake rises and sends waves over the whole island in protest. Another man tells him to put back what he has taken, else he will "pay dearly for them" (FLFD, 331)

Finally, there were several rituals described for curing cows that had been stricken with "fairy darts," some as simple as putting a finger into the hole, then having someone else do the same, some much more elaborate (FLFD, 81). The Mary Candle ritual was probably the most complex:

"The candle was put three times round the body at the forelegs, three times round the belly and three times at the hind legs. t took two men to perform this cure and each time the candle was put around the cow the Sign of the Cross was made on her with the candle. The candle was then taken between the two hind legs and up along the backbone to between the horns and the Sign of the Cross was made again there. Then the candle was taken between teh two forelegs and outh through the hind legs and uup to the horns again untll it was done three times. The cure was complete then." (FLFD, 81)

Another cure for fairy darts was to scrape pot & pot hook & scrape cows horns & teats and burn it in the pot lid under the cow's nose. It is not surprising that there was so much concern over the wellbeing of animals, since they would have been the primary source of food and income for rural peasant farmers, in ancient times, as well as today. The primary concern was that of survival.

It is clear that in "the old days" of the Old Ways, the religion of the Celts was not a thing separate from everyday life, nor was it full of elaborate dress-up rituals that involved casting imaginary circles meant to call down great spirits for the purpose of giving High Priest Oakberry tickets to the big game on Thursday. From what evidence is available, it is more likely that what the Wiccans call Sabbats were primarily times of peace and plenty as a respite from the all too frequent times of hardship. There was always feasting, drinking and music, and often fires were lit in honor of the sun, either welcoming it or hoping to entice it to return.

The celebration of the eight major festivals generally were associated with fire or the sun, or were celebrations of fertility or for protection. Any rituals that were performed by everyday people would probably have been for protection from the illness, danger or being led astray into the otherworld, or were in the interests of preserving or saving their animals and fields, their source of food and livlihood.

Although we don't know what the relgion of the pre-Christian Celts was like on an everyday basis, nor do we know exactly what the Druids did with the mistletoe they collected with their golden sickles. We have no record of what went on in Stonehenge or in any of the stone circles found so abundantly throughout Ireland and Britain. However, we do have the elements of Christianity that are not purely Christian, taken from the Bible, and we do have the celebration of the Celtic festivals not celebrated anywhere else in the world. From those we can perhaps find traces of what the ancient Celts believed and did, and maybe even work towards recreating a pagan religion based on those remnants, and more accurately call it part of the pre-Christian tradition.

Appendix B. Castle Pook

I don’t consider that magic and ritual are in any way the sme thing. Magic is a natural thing within it’s own laws as it were. Ritual is ameans for people to understand magic, trying to make it conform to a set of rules that they’ve contrived. Or as a means of creating in themselves a freame of mind to be receptive to magic.

I suppose everything I do has it’s ritual but it’s such a part of everyday life you couldn’t divide it...except where I’d be doing a thanking or something like that, that I’d actually go to the tree to make an offering or wahtever.

It’s just an asking, there’s no great riitual involved, like I need something very much so I ask the goddess & sometimes she gives it. Sometimes she doesn’t but there you go...

I suppose there’s a deal of it that is philosophic, a percentage of it, but I wouldn’t consider it a means to an end, I’d consider it an end in itself actually. A force of nature that I’m priveleged betimes to patch into. Magic is just like taking a shit if you get used to it.

No, I don’t. The term "high magic" is bit of a bullshit term really, you know all magic just is it’s irrelevant whether it’s high low or middle. It’s like hi and low electricity, drinking water , light, it’s all a matter of level. The magic’s there the whole time you just tap into it, it’s the same. The only thing I do notice is the more you use it the more there is and the more you have recourse to it the more it. It’s hard to quantify it because it’s slippery. The more you take there more there seems to be about.

Nonspecifically, all or any as the will seems right. Personally the form doesn’t really matter to me. It was, a long time ago, very important then I came to realize it’s all intellectual & intellect is the booby prize when they/we took away our instinct.

Does Jesus save?! Y’know... yes they are successful, if you want them to be, but you actually have to know what you want. 90% of aquisition is knowing what you want. (first law of aquisition. ) If you got it you know, if you haven’t then you know. It’s like have you got a dick or haven’t you? =)

No!!!!

Imagination. Entirely. I’m in the process of unlearing all the bunkum from books. I’m a wiccan metamorphasing into an animist. Or as an alcoholic would say i’m a recovering wiccan.

I work alone because that’s the way I am & anything that would pass for ritual that I do is so personal to me as to exclude a group. I’ve been known to perform though. For working in groups...most of the Wiccans are middle class and just into sex and the naughtiness of it. Which I find basically tiresome and nothing at all to do with magic. But the free sex can be quite a lot of fun.

I first met Dr Gardner in 1959. I was a strange sort of melacholic rather lonely 12 year old. My grandmother had a house next to the Witches Mill in Castletown, Isle of Man, which was Dr. Gardner’s museum cum workshop cup tourist trap. I suppose I got to know him over the next 3 yreas 4 yrs. He was kind to me and encouraged me in a quiet way. Over the next 4 years I hadn’t a lot to do with the Mill being off the Isle of Man most of the time, but I kept in touch and got to know the Lady Olwen, Monique Wilson who inherited the Witches Mill on Dr. Gardners death.

I remeber him as a wonderfully witchy old man with long white hair & long pointed goatee riding a high nellie bicycle. He used to stand in the museum very very still--he had a talent for absolute stillness--and he was a great joker. He’d wait for a tourist to actually poke him to see if he was alive and then he’d open his eyes & just look them straight in the eyes --yes, powerful eyes, I remember powerful eyes about him too.

After the wilsons took over it was all downhill. Scotty Wilson was a scallywag. Not an unnice man, quite the contrary, a charmer, but dodgy in the extreme with a penchant for very young women. Not a pedophile but just yourng women 17-18, and he used the Wiccan thing to pull ‘em.

Nicky on the other hand had the magic and great beauty and presence. Looked like a beautiful Yoko Ono, but sadly liked the gargle. Alcohol. She was a lush. I was the door ward of the coven, the gate keeper and somewhat a pet of all of them. When Del and I were first together we worked for them and lived there at the Witches Mill. Used to hear at night old Uncle Gerry walk around and the typwriter. In daylight the typewriter would go rattling off and no one around. Place was haunted--had a haunted feel but was not threatening in any way. [Del disagrees]

There was one room, a working room with a pentacle painted on the floor . Everybody was uncomfortable with that room, some people wouldn’t go into it, some people would freak out if they just went into it. It didn’t bother me that much, I didn't like it, it was an uncomfortable room. I didn’t feel particularly threatened, just felt uncomfortable. I wouldn’t live in it. We were winter curators for the museum, cleaning it & sorting out the displays & stuff like that & getting to play with all the daft magical toys. I found crowleys green mirror & red mirror. Very fascinating, but all the Golden Dawn stuff I could only describe as tacky. As was a lot of the stuff they had, a lot of the stuff they had on exhibition.

To go back to Gerry Gardner. I suppose it would be summer of 1960 because I’d be 13, and his niece & nephew were staying with him in his house in Castletown and I sort of became an honorary member of the family. I spent much of the summer around the young people and around the Mill. (We were curators in '68--March-April. They sold the mill in '71 or '72 & went to america to be well to do drunkards.) I personally feel that from then on my relationship with Dr. Gardner was different in--he never was patronizing, you know. If you asked him a question he ‘d answer it, often with another question. He was lateral without being obsucure or maybe obscure without being lateral. He was a man of very powerful intellect and you could feel the magic crackle about him. I believe he was the genuine article. I’d go so far to say that as a child I adored him, you know the way a kid is with a powerful adult.

The coven collapsed into a drunken fuck club in the last few years. A drunken fuck club with ritual. And that’s about the size of it mate. There you go. Over & out.

both, all of the above.

no, I never do other people’s rituals, under any circumstances.

way of life.

no distinction. Maybe ‘high magic’ is when it comes on so strong that it hits you so hard you get ‘high’ ?

Beltaine, we always used to light a bonfire, and in the past we have done things like walk the animals round the fire. Bev, and some other people would jump over the fire. Macho stuff.

This year we watched a goat kid being born on May Eve, and attended a rave on the full moon, didn’t we?

and we used to make a big thing about midsummer solstice too. We went to stonehenge, remember? But that was back in the late 70’s early 80’s. Before Thatcher’s New britain made the changes in the Law, that made it rather difficult....

People (everybody) in Ireland lights bonfires on midsummer solstice anyway, so it’s no big deal over here. Now that we are at magical mystical Castle Pook, site of the original Midsummer Night’s dream, we might have to ‘invent a new tradition’!!

Magic works without the need for rituals. You know because you can see the results.

n/a

....all inside your head, (she said to me...)

Scotty Wilson, (Monique’s husband) had me in his bedroom one night. (in 1968, i was 17 at the time) He told me the best way to get the best orgasm was to start making love, whatever way.... erection, connection, stop. Wait. No moving. That’s all. erection goes away after awhile, leaving both parties feeling somewhat dissatisfied. Day/night 2, same again. Do this every night/day for (how long?) say 10 times. then you can let go and have the orgasm of a lifetime. See if you can persuade a man to try this with you, Kelly.

in groups? Well, thats another story!

Gardner, Gerald Witchcraft Today. 1951

Green, Marion. Magic in Principle and Practice

Mac Cana, P. Celtic Mythology

Luhrmann, Tanya. Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England. Oxford University Press, 1989.

O hEochaidh, Sean, ed. Fairy Legends From Donegal.

Starhawk. Spiral Dance.

Ross, Anne. Pagan Celtic Britain.

________. Everyday Life of the Pagan Celts.